Royals can't stem rise of republicans

Tim Barlass

Just when you thought the impending birth of a royal would finally kill off the Australian Republican Movement, it is set to come out fighting.

On Monday the group will meet at the Republic Hotel on Pitt Street, perhaps prematurely wet the baby's head, then the national director, David Morris, will launch into their new ''Our Identity'' campaign for the first time on mainland Australia.

Monarchists told Fairfax Media that the republican movement was ''irrelevant'' given the popularity of the royal family demonstrated by the recent visit of the Queen and the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

But Mr Morris said a recent Morgan poll showed 7 per cent growth in support for the movement.

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''When we go out and talk to young Australians as we have in Tasmania for the last two months, young Australians are very keen to get involved in the discussion - our polling shows 45 per cent of young people support a republic, 31 per cent oppose,'' he said.

''This is not about the royal family, it's about Australia. When we become a republic, the royal family will still be there. We have done focus group research since the diamond jubilee which found that nobody in the baby boomer generation or the younger generation has any particular emotional connection to the British royalty or it needing to have a role in our system of government.''

He said the crowds for recent royal visits was nothing like the hundreds of thousands of Australians that poured out on to the streets to welcome royal visitors in the 1950s or 1960s.

''In those days, Australians could see that the royal family was a uniting force, but today, unfortunately, they don't unite Australians.''

The national convener of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy, David Flint, however, said as the royal family returned to a position of great popularity it made life more difficult for the republicans.

''This announcement will obviously bring a lot of attention to the monarchy - everybody likes a baby and royal babies seem to command a lot of attention.

''It reminds people that here we have this system which is above politics, which works.

The chairman of the Australian Monarchist League, Philip Benwell, said the announcement indicated the ongoing and renewing nature of the monarchy.

''The republicans of course are themselves renewing with the election of Geoff Gallop [the former West Australian Labor premier] as their chairman and they will proceed along their own lines to create greater support for them.''